January 25, 2021
In my quest to eat healthier this new year, I’ve been experimenting with making pita bread and serving it with a spicy hummus I stumbled into making while trying to replicate my favorite store-bought hummus from Sabra, the supremely spicy hummus. The supremely spicy hummus had caught my eye a couple years back when I was browsing through the refrigerated snacking aisle at my local grocery store. I hesitated to buy the hummus at the time because I thought the hummus would be way too spicy for me. I forgot all about it until the hummus caught my eye again at a friend’s house a few months later. When I finally tried the supremely spicy hummus, I realized how wrong I was. Yes, the hummus was spicy, but no, it wasn’t overly spicy. The other ingredients within the hummus seemed to mellow out the heat from the hot chili peppers added to the hummus. What resulted was a perfectly creamy, smooth, spicy, and savory dip. I loved the supremely spicy hummus so much, I stocked up on it to use for quick snacks and lunch for months after. It worked wonderfully as a dip for pita and made for the perfect complement to raw veggies in a wrap. The hummus was so convenient to just buy, it never even crossed my mind to recreate it at home until a few months ago. I started to embark on a journey to recreate homemade versions of all of my favorite foods including my own version of spicy hummus. The components of hummus were pretty straightforward. I experimented with cooking chickpeas soaked in water for several hours over a stovetop and in the microwave in my quest to find the perfect texture for the hummus. Both methods worked, but using the microwave to cook the chickpeas was much quicker and resulted in less clean up afterwards. Thus, the microwave became my go-to method for quickly cooking chickpeas. For the spicy component, I experimented with garlic chili sauce. The garlic chili sauce pretty much covered three components within the spicy hummus – garlic, heat, and acid. The moment I added chili garlic sauce to the hummus, I knew I found the perfect addition. A tablespoon of the chili garlic sauce was all I needed to make my spicy hummus. My version of spicy hummus turned out just like how I imagined it would. The chili garlic sauce added a good amount of heat to the hummus without making the hummus too spicy. The tahini and olive oil when blended with the chickpeas helped mellow out the heat from the chili garlic sauce. I omitted the lemon juice since the chili garlic sauce already had a good amount of acid. I did go ahead and add more garlic to the hummus because one can never have too much garlic. I knew I had a keeper on hand when I noticed myself making spicy hummus on autopilot over the last few months. The only missing piece to serve alongside this hummus was pita bread. Thus, I reached back through my reference books (from my former professional baking class) to learn how to make pita bread. I then experimented with different blends of flours and ratios of ingredients until I ended up with the perfect fluffy, puffy, pillowy pita bread. The combination of the warm soft pita with the spicy (yet still mellow) hummus made for the perfect afternoon snack.
For the pita bread:
· 1 cup all-purpose flour plus additional for rolling out dough
· 1 cup bread flour
· ½ teaspoon instant yeast
· 1 teaspoon kosher salt
· 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
· ½ cup + 1 tablespoon warm water
· ¼ cup whole milk plain Greek yogurt
· 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
For the spicy hummus:
· ½ cup cooked chickpeas*
· 2 cloves garlic
· 2 tablespoons tahini
· 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· 2 tablespoons olive oil
· ¼-½ cup water
*I started by soaking ¼ cup of chickpeas in water for 6-8 hours. When the chickpeas have doubled in size, I drained out most of the water and cooked the chickpeas in the microwave for 5-6 minutes.
Directions:
1) To make the pita bread, in a large bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, bread flour, instant yeast, kosher salt, and granulated sugar. Gradually add the warm water, Greek yogurt, and a tablespoon of olive oil. Knead the mixture until a dough is formed, about 5 minutes. Cover the bowl with a large plate. Let the dough rise undisturbed in a warm spot for an hour.
2) Line a half sheet baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper. Set aside.
3) When an hour has passed, lightly flour a working surface with all-purpose flour. Transfer the dough from the bowl to the lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in half vertically and horizontally to form four triangular pieces. Divide each of the four triangular pieces in half to form eight equal triangular pieces. Form each of the triangular pieces into balls. Use a rolling pin to roll each ball into a flat circle. Transfer each flat circle to the parchment lined baking sheet.
4) Brush each of the flat circles with the remaining olive oil. Cover the sheet pan with a large sheet of plastic wrap and let the dough rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes. As the dough is resting, preheat oven to 500°F.
5) Once the dough has rested for 30 minutes and the oven has reached 500°F, place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 5 minutes. The pita bread should begin to puff up right around the 4-4½ minute mark. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and set the pita bread aside to cool.
6) To make the spicy hummus, in a food processor, pulse together the cooked chickpeas, garlic, tahini, chili garlic sauce, and kosher salt. Drizzle in the olive oil. Gradually add the water a couple tablespoons at a time until the hummus reaches your desired consistency. Serve the spicy hummus with the warm pita bread.
Takeaways: Chili sauce plus garlic cloves work as a good substitute for chili garlic sauce. I’ve tested both versions out and both work just as well. If I want something a bit more substantial, I sometimes make cumin roasted carrots by tossing some chopped carrots in kosher salt and cumin and roasting them in the oven with a light drizzle of olive oil. The cumin roasted carrots pair nicely with the pita bread and hummus for a quick lunch.